Atomic structure is typically taught as a part of a high school or college chemistry curriculum. Lessons included in that curriculum often cover information about electron configurations, including atomic orbitals, valence electrons, and various rules used to determine the positions and energy levels of those electrons. In existing curricula, these lessons are provided in textbooks, which include a number of exercises that require students to draw orbital box diagrams and atomic orbitals, and to determine valid electron configurations that will not violate a number of rules (e.g., the Pauli Exclusion Principle, Hund's Rule, and the Aufbau principle).
It can be difficult for students to visualize and make connections between a number of aspects of electron configurations, such as how atomic orbitals fit together in three-dimensional space, the relationship between an element's electron configuration and its position in the periodic table, and the relationships between electron configuration, atomic orbitals, and valence electrons (e.g., as illustrated in electron dot diagrams). Students must manually draw each of these diagrams and may have a difficult time both visualizing the correct configuration and determining when their diagrammed configuration is correct or incorrect.